Moonflower
by gemsofformenos
Summary: Sokka's heart is aching since the siege of the North and he has to deal with the fact, that he's coughing moonflower petals.


**Hello everybody.**

**Okay, this is another try of mine, to approach the Hanahaki Disease. Technically, both have confessed their love for each other, but I felt, like her death had crushed the chance to live together with her and it would have made it impossible for her to reciprocate his love in a way, suitable for a human, so the flowers were able to set roots within Sokka. It's a bit of playing with the idea of a tragic love between a human and an immortal existence and how such a love would mess up a mortal life. This idea was inspired by the story of Yumi Take 'The blue marvel of the soul', so a big thank you here for sharing this story with us. **

**I hope this one will find some fans, beside the fact, that this is not a one-hundred-percent fit for a break-out. I wish all of you a lot of fun with this story**

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**Moonflower**

Sokka's had left his tent and the campsite behind, to have some time for himself. He was checking his neck and his throat, like so often during the last months, since they were traveling through the Earthkingdom and now the Fire Nation. He sighed heavy and he felt the stinging pain in his lungs and throat, as the air was passing the sore and tight passage. He had learned to suppress most of the coughing since this choking pain had started. He had learned to accept the shifting and crawling feeling along his spine and under his skin. Sokka felt the vines shifting and moving under the pressure of his fingers. It was always frightening. This was an enemy inside of him, he couldn't fight alone. He had learned to stand against enemies, he could fight, but now his feelings were his worst enemy and he had no one, who could help him to win this war.

He reached a cliff, which was hanging over a river and took carefully seat some steps away from the edge. Spirits forbid, he would stumble and fall during a coughing attack. He had to chuckle sarcastically, as an image came to his mine of his coughing and cramping body, rolling over the cliff and falling down to meet his doom, lining his last way on the ground and in the air with silky white petals.

The night was quiet, beside his labored breaths and his suppressed coughing. He laid himself on his back, ignoring the fact, that this was triggering the itchy pain in his lungs even more. The sky was clear, freckled with silver stars, blinking and shining in the warm night. He had seen such skies many nights and it were these moonless nights, when the pain in his chest was worst. A heavy coughing forced him to his side and he felt cold sweat coming to his forehead, as his body cramped and jerked, until a surge of bright white petals had left his mouth.

He looked at the parts of the blooming flower, he had coughed and spitted out and he wiped his mouth clean. He was thankful, because it wasn't as worse at the last time, but he had learned, that this didn't meant, that he got better. It was linked with her and how near of far she could come to him. It affected the vines and roots, but it was always worst in the moonless nights.

Aang had noticed his tortured pains and coughing, first, as he had found him in his quarter at the North Pole, weeks after the siege. He had told him, what was wrong with him. Where these pains in his chest came from and why he felt, like something was wandering under his skin, squeezing his veins shut, knotting nerves and guts, until his whole body felt sore and exhausted.

And he had warned him, about the petals. He hadn't believed it, until he had coughed out the first soft and silky petals in front of Katara. Moonflower petals. He would never forget the shock and pain in his sister's face and the broken sadness in Aang's. He had stormed out into the night to the oasis and had cried for himself, coughing petals on the grass and into the spirit pond. He had felt the vines circling around his throat and he was about to loose the fight, when he had seen her face in the sky.

Another rain of white petals climbed painfully up his acing throat, leaving his mouth with hurting coughs. It pressed tears of pain out of his eyes. These dark and lonely nights were the worst. Not even Toph was laughing at him, anymore. She had nearly suffocated herself with her laughter, as she had heard, that Sokka was coughing out petals, but she had stopped making jokes about it, as she had found him squirming and jerking on the ground, as one of the petals had blocked his trachea. She had saved his life, by pressing the rest of air out of his lungs, which had removed the blocking petal. Now she was sad and worried, as the others, always building up some tension, when he was holding his heart or when he was just cleaning his throat a little.

He sighed and faced a dark place at the sky, where her face would return in a few nights. It would ease his pains and would drove back the growing vines. He would feel better and better until full moon.

When Yue's face would smile for him, to ease his pains.

When her smile would tell him, that she was waiting for him.

When her shining and beautiful face would give him a break from his never-ending torture.

When she would be closer to him, than on other days.

But he would never heal, completely. Not in this world and not in this life. The flowers returned, when the moon faded. He had lost his heart to a spirit, her spirit. He had lost his heart to the moon, like many other women and men, before and probably many more would still do, when he would have left this world, one day. He picked up one of the beautiful petals and carefully rubbed with his thumb and index finger over it, feeling the soft texture of it. A smile came to his lips, as he felt the roots shifting around his heart. He remembered their last kiss, before she had left him in this world. It has been a promise. One day, they would meet again and until then, she would watch his way.

She would shine for him, to ease this pain.

She would smile for him, to help him bearing his pain and to give him time to recover, until her smile had to fade for some nights, only to come back to the sky, again in an endless circle. She had given up her life without knowing, what pain she would cause in him, but she did, what she could to help him stand. She had done this sacrifice, to save the world, he lives in, so he would try to live his life for her. He would stand against this pain inside of him. He had given her this promise this night back in the oasis, as he had seen her face in the sky.

As he was without any hope.

As he had been sitting in the spirit pond, waiting for the next round of painful coughs.

When he had seen her smile and had felt the flowers retreating, suddenly, for her.

When he had heard her promise, that she would be there for him, to aid him through his life, while he was surrounded by beautiful moonflower petals.


End file.
